


Mother Bear Byleth

by bethany81707



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Catharsis, Flash Fic, Gen, Hatred, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Threats, Threats of Violence, Unwilling Alliance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-16 03:02:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29569314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bethany81707/pseuds/bethany81707
Summary: Byleth gets to have some choice words with her greatest adversary.
Relationships: Byleth & Thales
Kudos: 7





	Mother Bear Byleth

“Hello, Duke,” Byleth said, crossing her arms as the goateed man deigned to approach her.

“You must be Edelgard’s beloved Professor. How lovely to make your acquaintance at last. You may call me Arundel, I’m Edelgard’s uncle,” Arundel said, offering the smallest of bows, not taking his eyes off her for a moment.

“Can the act, you’re no family of El’s. You’re like Solon, aren’t you? One of those monsters who slithers around in the dark and breaks like priceless porcelain when exposed to umbral steel?” Byleth asked, her hand caressing the hilt of the Sword of the Creator. Arundel snarled, knowing that she could have it drawn and sliding across his neck in a moment. She would no doubt be prepared for his barrier- why did he have to burn the element of surprise on Kronya?

“I assure you, whatever hangups Edelgard has about me are entirely her own. I shall have words with her later about what she says about me to her closest friends,” Arundel said. The Sword of the Creator seemed to jump out of its scabbard as Byleth brought the point to Arundel’s neck, and all of a sudden he thought twice about the ability of his shield to protect him.

“I told you to can the act. I know for a fact that you have appeared before me before, the day I lost my father. You’re the commander of Edelgard’s most monstrous soldiers. You’re the one who tortured her, killed her siblings, and forced her to burn her childhood to the ground for your own twisted ends. And you killed my father, forced my best friend to sacrifice herself in my name, and cost me the ability to see my babies graduate. There is nothing you can do to get on my good side, especially if your idea of trying is to threaten harm on El.  _ Got it _ ?” Byleth asked. Thales nodded, wondering what she might do if he tried to escape. He had fanciful notions of her tearing a hole in the fabric of reality to pursue him if he tried to teleport, and didn’t have anything to prove she couldn’t.

“...G-got it, Fell Star,” Thales said. Byleth’s piercing gaze continued to stare right into his eyes, right through to his own crystalline heart, and Thales got the distinct feeling Byleth was savouring this moment.

“Hubert says your men are doing important work for El’s cause. That the Church of Seiros is too powerful to topple with the might of the Empire alone. And I trust Hubert to be correct. But the power of the Sword of the Creator must not be underestimated, beast. With it in my hands and my Black Eagle Strike Force at my side, we will become an unstoppable precision battalion. I believe that makes you… how you say…  _ redundant _ ?” Byleth asked.

“You’re bluffing. Or quite foolish,” Thales said, realising Byleth was not likely to wind up stabbing him after all. She gave the matter some careful thought, pressed the blade against his chin long enough to draw blood, before setting it down to rest her arm.

“What are you planning to do about it if I am? I am the Fell Star, as you know me. You cannot harm my Black Eagles, or poison them against me, without my knowledge and swift retribution. You cannot make yourself more necessary to El, because anything you can do, I can do better. And you cannot win me over, because there’s nothing left you can do to anger me. What tricks do you have down there, in the depths of that foul mind of yours?” Byleth asked.

“Killing you, as a matter of course. How could I do anything else, after a threat so blunt? It would not do to allow a weapon as powerful as you to continue being at Edelgard’s hand, would it?” Thales asked.

“I’ve cheated death twice. Do you want to take the chance you can make the third one stick?” Byleth asked.

“...You win this round, Fell Star. But you are correct in that I have more cards to play, more dangerous weapons to unleash. You may count yourself lucky that now is not the time to do so,” Thales said, backing away despite the hit to his intimidation it would cast upon him.

“Coward,” Byleth said.

“...Is that what you believe? Is that your response to the clear and present danger you clearly recognise me as? Even one with the goddess on her side would be foolish to believe they could best me,” Thales said, coming to a stop.

“So, repeat that for me- you think you are so powerful that even the goddess would think twice about going after you. Wow. Ego,” Byleth taunted, contemptuously tossing her head.

“You…” Thales began, darkness appearing in the palms of his hands, but before he could so much as choose his spell, the Sword of the Creator came more quickly. It dug into his ribs, wounding him, but a wound he could walk off- though he would have to rely on Shambhala’s technology to do so at a rapid enough rate.

“I think you could do with a bit of a head deflation. Shame I missed,” Byleth scoffed. Thales growled, attempting to teleport and finding the chest wound disrupted the movements necessary. With a start, he realised that the javelins of light would no doubt be similarly blocked.

“Lucky…” Thales muttered under his breath.

“We don’t believe in luck here. We make our own. Now get out of El’s castle and crawl back into the gutters from which you crawled. If you have any dignity, die there. And if you ever find yourself unlucky enough to come face to face with me when victory over the Maculate One is feasible… well, I’ll probably have gotten a bit more skill by then, so I don’t think I’ll be missing your head a second time,” Byleth said. Thales felt just vulnerable enough that he took this chance to scarper.

**Author's Note:**

> Nothing but respect for the writers who can make Thales into an intimidating abusive guardian figure for Edelgard (and Dimitri, looking at you, Eagle Among Lions). But sometimes you just need some stress relief, some knowledge that he can get taken down a peg.


End file.
